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Without patent protection, the very thing that Samsung or whoever is copying very well might not have even existed in the first place. Patents exist for the purpose of providing an incentive to create ideas. Patents have a limited exclusion lifetime. Many patents have and are going to expire sooner than they otherwise would have because of the effect of bringing ideas into the patent process sooner than they might have under less competitive conditions. So at least that's one good thing for those of us that might not have benefited directly or indirectly from the patent. We get the idea freed from the patent sooner than it otherwise would have been, and once patent free, its open to use by anybody for the rest of time, or until evildictator collects enough minions.